Sunday, July 2, 2017

CMANO - To Kill a Kilo

Inspired by an scenario from other old but great naval simulation, this custom scenario has me hunting for two Iranian Project 877 Kilo class diesel submarines. The waters are shallow -which favors the Iranians- and the location is the Strait of Hormuz.

I'm in command of a single nuclear submarine, Los Angeles class.

Note how because of the shallow waters I can't deploy my towed passive sonars. This is a great disadvantage because the towed sonars offer better detection of low sound frequencies which travel way farther than high frequency ones.

Three hours and a half into the scenario, I'm handled two contacts. The ranges are really close. But my submarine is not yet detected.

Some twenty minutes later I have closed in with the contact to spit distance (note the scale bar at the bottom, in meters) but my crew was not able to classify the contact. All of the sudden, the contact fired on me (red icon with a small T is for a torpedo) and my crew quick draw two of our own.

Fortunately, my sub's torpedoes were way faster than theirs. One Iranian Kilo is down.

And now I change course due southwest, to meet the other Iranian submarine.

After two and a half hours of hunting each other, my submarine and the Iranian Kilo meet again for another quick draw. We win this round too and the objective is completed.

Two good kills, but the inability of my virtual crew to identify the Iranian Kilos at such a close range makes me worry about engaging these type of submarines.